April 2019, Vol. 19, No.

2 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1213–2489

Verification of Material Composition and Manufacturing Process of Carbon Fibre Wheel

Lukáš Maňas1, 2, Soňa Rusnáková1, Jakub Javořík1, Milan Žaludek1, Ladislav Fojtl1, 2
1
Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Vavrečkova 275,
760 01 Zlín. Czech Republic. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
2
Centre of Polymer Systems, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, tř.Tomáše Bati 5678, 760 01 Zlín. Czech Republic.

Presented research paper is focused on the development of carbon fibre wheel. Considering development and con-
struction of wheels for the automotive and motorcycle industry, low weight is one of the most significant factors.
In the case of rotating components, the imbalance of the assembly is a problem. This fact affects handling of the
vehicle or wheel behavior under the load, for example in the point of turning, acceleration or drive on damaged
road. Determination of the most appropriate material composition (sequence) is primarily the main problem of
composite material application. Correct design of material composition and also lay-up diagram is determined by
material characteristics and strength requirements. A suitable solution is in the application of a group of input
material structures creating hybrid composite. Specific combination of various input materials (aluminum ring,
3D printed plastic honeycomb core and carbon fibre composites) guarantees and ensures the fulfilment of the
strength requirements which are determined during each particular application. The main aim of presented paper
was to design material composition and shape of carbon fibre wheel that were subsequently verified by successful
manufacturing process.

Keywords: Composite Material, Carbon Fibre, Hybrid Core, Prepreg, Wheel

Introduction and technological process of production, materials that

guarantee the required properties throughout the proces
Carbon fibre composite materials penetrate into all have been selected. Used 3D disc model is based on the
sectors of industry and find their place in aerospace, au- standard R13 magnesium disc. Its basic dimensions have
tomotive or sports industry as well. In the case of compo- been preserved. This makes it possible to use the original
site discs that can be located to automotive or sport indus- fastening system with a central nut and pins. This is a
try, there are high requirements on their construction and standart mounting of these discs. The Catia V5 software
the same are applied to support materials. Production of was used for construction of the mold. The design was
complicated composite structures is possible with using based on the basic dimensions of the original magnesium
miscellaneous technologies, but also by different support disc and the input parameters for the NX 11 software that
materials. Types and technological solutions of the sup- seved for machining programming. The triangular type of
porting materials affect the resulting final components [1, the CTRIA3 elements with a edge size of 5 mm were se-
2]. lected for disk analysis using Finite Element Method
For the production of composite discs, compression (FEM). For the first analysis, the isotropic structure, rep-
molding technology is used. In case of two or more side resented by duraluminum materiál was chosen. Boundary
molds, there is no problem to create a product that con- conditions have been defined based on disc fixture and its
sists entirely of facing surfaces. This type of technology shape, loads were applied with respect to loadings meas-
uses the supporting material inside the structure – special ured on magnesium disc. The individual value of the load
hybrid core. The form of the supporting materials can af- applied to the wheel model are the result of tensometric
fect the rigidity of these structures. It may have either pos- measurements that were conducted independently at the
itive or negative effect on the resulting properties. In the practice and are based on weight combination of car and
case of negative properties, the rigidity of the whole as- expected driver weight. Input material data used for FEM
sembly is reduced. Conversely, positive properties induce analysis were selected from material library integrated
a better connection with the core material. This has a pos- into NX 11 software and correspond to those used for
itive effect on the overall properties – better connection magnesium wheel production. The exact composition of
of materials in the whole [3-7]. magnesium is not available from the manufacturer; thus
The aim of the presented article is to design and ex- raw magnesium was chosen (with no additives). This
perimentally verify compression molding technology method seems to be sufficient for initial simulations.
used for the production of composition wheels made of For the simulation, it was important to set the bound-
carbon fibre preimpregnated materials that were subse- ary conditions that imitate the real conditions of disk an-
quently verified by successful manufacturing process. chorage on the hub. In fact, the disk is mounted on the
The emphasis is placed on the material and technological hub and the resulting torque is transmitted through the
solution of the core structure to manufacture even more hub pins. To simplify the analysis, the disc was anchored
quality products. The problem can be the connection by a solid bond between bearing surface of the carbon
formed between materials in the parting line of the mold, wheel and the axle hub. Finally, wheel was loaded with
which can then weaken the whole disk structure [8]. vertical force, corresponding to the force when passing
Experiment through a curve road, equal to 4250 N.
Several design solutions have been proposed and
To verify the material composition of the structure

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April 2019, Vol. 19, No. 2 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1213–2489

found solutions then revealed weak points through simple analysis can be seen in Fig 1. Right side of this figure
analyzes. Due to the isotropic structure, disc redesigns depics stress values caused by force applied into the cen-
and detection of weaknesses were possible in a short time ter of wheel bearing surface and shows critical areas in
on several prepared design solutions. Attention has been future composite disk structure.
paid to weak spots and these locations have been opti-
mized in design of carbon disc. An example of the basic

Fig. 1 3D model of wheel disc (left) and resulting stresses of basic magnesium disc design (right)

After removing weaknesses and design optimaliza- was used to design the mold (Fig. 2), and SolidCAM was
tion, the final shape of 3D model was designed. The car- used to simulate CNC machining and creation of G-code.
bon pre-impregnated material has been assigned to the The mold can be placed in a heated oven or autoclave. For
created mesh in FEM software. The material properties study purposes, the mold can also be used in laboratory
correspond to the used prepreg GG200T-DT120-42. It is conditions, especially for teaching activities with prepreg
a transversally isotropic material that has five independ- materials due to complex shapes.
ent constants. The honeycomb core insert inside the disc
was made by 3D print and was connected to an aluminum The aluminum material was also applied to produce a
alloy ring, which is an isotropic material having two in- core insert ring. This insert allows disc to be mounted and
dependent constants. attached to the axle hub. After demolding the finished
disk, several holes were drilled into this insert. Four holes
were used for the positioning of the wheel on the hub pre-
cisely and to capture the reaction during driving. The cen-
tral nut was also utilize to position the disc accurately.
The nut presses against a used aluminum insert. This does
not deform the inner and outer shape structure of the disc
when the tightening torque is reached.
The production of the hybrid core needed to form the
inner support shell involved several steps. After defining
the boundaries of the core, its shape was designed. Join-
Fig. 2 Mold assembly with aluminium insert (yellow) ing parts and all core segments followed. Segments were
and honeycomb 3D printed core (green) prepared using 3D printing technology. Each segment
consists of a shell with a honeycomb core. The shell
The carbon prepreg has been placed to each laminate thickness of the core was 1 mm - sufficient to subse-
layer separately to achieve individual angles of rotation quently cure of the core in an assembly in a heated oven
between the fabric layers. For the analyzes, seven sizes of (without its deformation). Core segments were joined
angles were used, under which individual layers of fabric with an aluminum insert using a heat-resistant adhesive.
were placed. After setting the boundary conditions and Carbon pre-impregnated material was applied to the
load forces, the assembly was analyzed and evaluated. prepared segments. This layers consisted of carbon fibers
For manufacturing of the mold, aluminum material with areal weight of 200g/m2. Individual layers were
was chosen. Aluminium mold has a standard construction placed on the core according to generally known rules
design, but allows to use the components with a different used to lay-up of prepreg material. The number of layers
shell thickness to produce different discs. It is possible to and their placement fully corresponds to the analysis that
change the size of the core. Selected aluminium material involves the individual layers of material. In order to store
was easily formed into a required shape and much less individual layers, paper templates were created to ensure
production time was necessary for the mold production elimination of butt joints in same area, especially in areas
and necessary surface treatment. The Catia V5 software of the highest loads. These areas were covered by prepreg

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April 2019, Vol. 19, No. 2 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1213–2489

material without any joints and fulfilment of strength re- joints between individual layers is allowable, if overlap-
quirement is thus expected. In practice, overlap of butt ping of individual layers is at least 30 mm.

Fig. 3 Segment 3D model (left) and prepared reinforcing core (right)

Emphasis was placed on the uniform thickness of the suitable release agent. In total, five layers of the same ma-
resulting shell. Thus, the prepared core placed into a vac- terial were used as in the case of core insert production.
uum bag, inside air evacuated and whole unit was placed A core (Fig. 3) was inserted between the mold halves and
into a heated oven. The curing program was selected with the mold was closed. Ten layers of carbon plain fabric of
respect to the applied core materials. A lower temperature 200g/m2 areal weigh and two layers of special hybrid ar-
was emploed for a longer period of time, namelly 80 °C amid plain fabric of areal weight of 225 g/m2 were added
for 12 hours. However, this material is possible to be re- around the disk circumference. Supporting materials,
processed at higher temperatures, where it further affects such as tearing and separation fabrics, were added and the
the resulting properties of the structure (so called post- entire assembly was inserted into the heated oven for 90
curing). Layers of carbon prepreg material were subse- minutes at 120 °C (this program was post-curing program
quently loaded into two-part mold that was separated by for core insert in the disc. In all curing processes the struc-
tures were connected to a vacuum source.

Fig. 4 Carbon wheel disc after demoulding (left) and finishing operations (right)

Summary and discussion thermoset matrix. This material is also capable to with-
stand a curing program for prepreg materials.
Compression molding technology is a standard tech-
Individual layers of prepreg materials and separately
nology used in the production of composite components.
manufactured core covered by pre-cured carbon prepred
In this case, technology allows to produce parts with
were inserted into the prepared mold. Pre-cured hybrid
specified requirements – allfacing surface with a pre-
core had coarse surface due to use and subsequent re-
cisely constituted core. All technological requirements
moval of peel ply. This surface helped to create better
were transferred into the design of the production of a
connection between core and layers of facing carbon fab-
two-side mold with polished cavity shapes.
ric. The advantages of this individual parts lay-up is the
The first step was the production of the core necessary
full connection between the core and carbon fibre layers.
to meet the required conditions. The core consisted of
The use of hybrid supporting core can replace simple
honeycomb inner structure, aluminum insert ring and four
butt joint in this two side mold by perfect areal connection
layers of carbon fabric cover. Used honeycomb inner
provided by whole hybrid core surface. This connection
structure was manufactured using 3D printing that allows
is specific by higher resistance without failures under
to produce spesfic shapes, and also enables shape changes
loading. The result is a carbon disc formed with an inner
of inner honeycomb structure itself (different honeycomb
shell. On the other hand, there is main problem in the pro-
shapes and dimensions). Normally, construction 3D
duction of hollow composite parts – connection between
printed parts are produced from Acrylonitrile butadiene
individual layers mold parting line. This is main problem
styrene (ABS) material that shows very good adhesion to

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April 2019, Vol. 19, No. 2 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1213–2489

in production with complex segment molds, where inner 448 kPa ± 14 kPa and fastening nut is tightened by de-
blowing membrane is not possible to be used. fined torque. During this test, a pressure inside the tire
These findings may be applied in the production of may slightly rise, where this fact is connected to applied
hollow components, where inner vaccum bag is not pos- stress. The radial load is set to 1180 N and is based on the
sible to use due to mold complexity. If the core is used as tire manufacturer's recommended values. To meet the test
a mold part, it becomes a permanent part of the resulting conditions, the minimum life cycle of 500,000 cycles is
product. In practice, this means producing a hollow part given by the mentioned standard. Results obtained from
in two steps. In the first step, a sufficiently stiff and strong this experiment will be used for further comparison with
core is formed from the same material as the material in- FEM analysis results [9].
serted into the manufacturing mold. Number of layers
used for core production depends on requested mechani- Acknowledgement
cal properties and have to be chosen with respect to fact This work was supported by the internal grant of TBU
that it can not be deformed during mold closing. in Zlín No. IGA/FT/2018/004 funded from the re-
Several types of semi-finished products can be used sources of specific university research.
for different supporting core shapes and types. It is possi-
ble to change the production technology and manufacture References
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